


love in the gutter where we found it

by doublejoint



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Alternate Universe, Con Artists, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-24
Updated: 2020-03-24
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:35:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23287885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/doublejoint/pseuds/doublejoint
Summary: (your crooked love is just a pyramid scheme)
Relationships: Imayoshi Shouichi/Susa Yoshinori
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6





	love in the gutter where we found it

**Author's Note:**

> for @shinigami_joyce on twitter!
> 
> i used [this](https://www.history.com/news/roaring-twenties-scams-ponzi-wall-street) as a ref
> 
> title/summary come from 'the mighty fall' by fall out boy & big sean

Every time they set up a new office it gets easier. Maybe Susa should be worried about how good they’re getting at it, but it just makes escaping easier. It means they’re less likely to slip up where it’s important; they can focus on carefully avoiding the law and all the people they’ve already duped. That’s getting harder now; it’s easy when you go from one side of Tokyo to the other but harder when the easiest targets have been picked clean and the ones that remain have been fooled by them too many times already or are sharp enough to realize something’s off. 

Maybe Susa should try looking a little meaner, a little less like he’s trying to look like a nice businessman. But when he mentions that to Imayoshi, Imayoshi only laughs.

“Oh, Susa. As if you could.”

“What the hell’s that supposed to mean?”

“Even when you’re grumpy, you look like you’re trying.”

“Thanks.”

“It’s helpful,” says Imayoshi. “A nice, honest young man, trying to make a living…”

“So hard to do in this economy,” says Susa. 

“Even better reason for people to feel sorry for you.”

Imayoshi exaggerates, but Susa appreciates it (somewhat) all the same. Pity’s not his first choice, but the bills don’t care about the emotion behind the money they’re paid with--and this office is not cheap. It does have a nice view, a lot of light and space for their filing cabinets, empty except for a few bogus forms and brochures. A real company could only be so lucky. 

A knock sounds at the door.

“I’ll go make the tea,” says Imayoshi.

“Come in,” says Susa, sitting down behind the desk.

A middle-aged man, vaguely familiar looking (he could be a former customer; he could be a childhood friend’s uncle; he could have shared an office building with Susa and Imayoshi the time before last) strolls in.

“Aren’t you the man from HydroCorp?”

Former customer, then. “That’s me. You know, the company went under—”

“And I lost all my money! I thought I was investing in the future of water.”

“We thought you were, too. I was out of work for a month after that…though nothing, I’m sure, to what you went through.”

That false humility pierces the man enough. “Oh, dear. Out of work for a month in this economy?”

“Yes,” says Susa, hoping his expression looks pitiful enough. “Well, you know, there’s so much competition, so many other companies going under too…”

The man nods. “Some of them are just scams though; did you know that?”

Susa nods. “Disgraceful. How people can just take money from innocent investors and run--there ought to be a crackdown.”

“Exactly!” says the man, pleased at the validation. “Well, here. You’re just starting out? I’ll be back next week, see what I can do to give you a healthy investment.”

“Please take a brochure,” says Susa. 

Imayoshi appears, tea tray in hand, when the door closes.

“I love the way you lie through your teeth,” he says. “Though it was rude of you to call me disgraceful.”

“I’m disgraceful, too,” says Susa. “Rotten. The worst.” 

“Tell me more,” says Imayoshi.

* * *

The man (Arai, he’s called; he introduces himself and hands over quite a sizeable sum) brings all his friends the following week; Susa doesn’t even have to go over the stupid spiel he’d rehearsed about telling his friends, about the dynamic stocks they’d be investing in, and Susa knows they’ll never be quite this profitable as long as they stay here. 

“What do you say we retire and go to the country?” he asks, filing away the checks.

“Don’t count your checks until they’re cashed,” says Imayoshi. “And I don’t want to leave money on the table.”

“Okay, we’ll head off to Osaka then,” says Susa. “New people there--we’ve both scammed this Arai guy twice already. That young woman from this morning knew us too. We’re going to run out of people, and the ones who are still here will catch on. Someone’s bound to report us.”

Imayoshi sighs. His fingers are itching for bills already; his shoulders are tensed to ride the current wave of luck out longer still--but they always end up wiping out, or coming close to it. The other scammers know them here by now, and they won’t hesitate to throw other people under to save themselves (and Susa and Imayoshi would do the same). Moving is too much effort; they’ve both been saying it for months, but the truth is they’re going to have to, and Susa would rather cut their losses and go now, before they wear out their welcomes--it means, at least, that they can come back to Tokyo sooner. Memories don’t last long in cities. Susa doesn’t remember what the bookstore across the street from their apartment was two stores ago, and that’s not even a year since. 

“Please?” Susa says. “Think about it, while we have the money to do it the way we want.”

Imayoshi smiles, and he doesn’t have to say it--Susa’s implying the way he wants it isn’t under cover of night, running from the law, a chase less fraught and more exciting in Imayoshi’s head. 

“Fine, how I want. You do want to make me happy, right?”

“I don’t have to pretend too hard to be a legitimate businessman to do that,” says Imayoshi.

Susa grits his teeth. Imayoshi’s pretending to ignore him again, so he leans back in his chair. The light is coming through the window, warm on the back of his head. Either way, sometimes it’s easy to believe they’ll be fine no matter what, that luck and something like the polar opposite of karma will see them through. Or maybe Susa’s been the mark this whole time, and the one Imayoshi’s been conning is him.

He only feels annoyed it’s taken him this long to notice. But, like everything else pertaining to Imayoshi, it’s an annoyance he can live with--or at least, until this all catches up to them.


End file.
